The grunt gallery is a Canadian artist-run centre, founded in 1984 and located in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. They show work by both indigenous and non-indigenous artists.

History

Established in 1984, and founded by Glenn Alteen, Kempton Dexter, Danielle Peacock, Susan MacKinley, Garry Ross, Dawn Richards, Billy Gene, Hillary Wood, and Daniel Olson. The grunt gallery was part of the second generation of Vancouver’s

artist-run centres Canadian artist-run centres (ARC or ARCs) are galleries and art spaces developed by artists in Canada since the 1960s. Artist-run centre is the common term of use for artist-initiated and managed organizations in Canada. Most centres follow the not ...

, such as Main Exit (1980–84), Unit/Pitt (1980-), Reflections (1982–83), Or Gallery (1983-), (N)on Commercial (1984–1985), the Convertible Showroom (1984–86), Artspeak (1986-), Clochard (1987-) and Gallery T.O.O (1988–89). The first meetings for the

Vancouver Fringe Festival The Vancouver Fringe Festival is an annual alternative theatre festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada established in 1985. The event is organized and sponsored by the First Vancouver Theatrespace Society, a volunteer not-for-profit ...

happened at grunt gallery in 1985 and grunt was a venue for the festival until 1989. From 1987 until 1994 singer Kate Hammett Vaughan and guitarist Ron Samworth produce a weekly jazz improv series called Jazz in the Gallery. After 1990 grunt developed a number of Performance Series that ran at the same time as the

including the 1990 Vancouver Performance Art Series, 1991 The Chicago Series, Performance Poets Series Masque of the Red Death and 1992 First Nations Performance Series. In 1993 Queer City Festival and Two Spirit Performance Series were produced. In 1994, grunt and artist Pat Beaton produced the Mount Pleasant Community Fence, one of Vancouver’s first engaged public art projects. In 1995, grunt produced the series Halfbred, that focused on issues of miscegenation, bisexuality and transgender communities with the Pitt Gallery. This is also the year when grunt obtained its own space. In 1996, production of the Mattering Map by Pia Masse, another engaged community public art focused on the working class diners of

East Vancouver East Vancouver (also called "East Van" or "the East Side") is a region within the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Geographically, East Vancouver is bordered to the north by Burrard Inlet, to the south by the Fraser River, and to th ...

. In 1999, grunt produced Live at the End of the Century, a six-week performance festival celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Living Art Festival in 1979. Thanks to this event’s success, grunt created "Live Biennial of Performance Art" in 2001, which still exists today. In 2008, grunt produced the Medicine Project, a website by Dana Claxton and

Tania Willard Tania Willard (born 1977) is an Indigenous Canadian multidisciplinary artist, graphic designer, and curator, known for mixing traditional Indigenous arts practices with contemporary ideas. Willard is from the Secwepemc nation, of the British Co ...

. In 2009, the Vancouver Art in the 60’s web site was produced by Lorna Brown with the

Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the campus of the University of British Columbia. The gallery is housed in an award-winning building designed by architect Peter Cardew and o ...

at UBC. In 2010, grunt launched Media Lab Campaign and Activating The Archive Project begins. In 2011, the Media lab opened and ATA series of web site projects were developed.

Involvement in First Nation Art

With over 20 years work with the

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

artists’ communities, grunt’s archive contains documentary reproduction of many works: performances on video, black and white photography and exhibitions on slides, more recently accompanied by digital photography. The gallery specialized throughout the 1990s in First Nation’s artists of all levels of experience and media could exhibit their works. Among the important of the events developed by grunt gallery is, the 1997 computer generated performance "An Indian Act Shooting the Indian Act" by Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun. In 2002, grunt gallery produced the conference, Indian Acts - Aboriginal Performance Art with TRIBE. In 2005, as a part of LIVE Biennial, grunt created the community project Nova Library and also its first archival Website First Nations Performance. In 2006, grunt gallery launched the First Visions Project with three websites, this is also the year when Grunt Gallery Legacy Endowment was set up through the Vancouver Foundation. In 2007, Live In Public- The Art of Engagement Conference and Aboriginal Creators Project with websites by Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun,

Rebecca Belmore Rebecca Belmore D.F.A. (born 1960) is an interdisciplinary Anishinaabekwe artist who is notable for politically conscious and socially aware performance and installation work. She is Ojibwe and member of Obishikokaang ( Lac Seul First Nation). ...

and

Dana Claxton Dana Claxton (born 1959) is a Hunkpapa Lakota filmmaker, photographer, and performance artist. Her work looks at stereotypes, historical context, and gender studies of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, specifically those of the First Nation ...

were created.

Beat Nation project

Working with a diverse group of artists and musicians, grunt gallery director Glenn Alteen initiated a project for an online gallery in 2008 and invited

and

Skeena Reece Skeena Reece (born 1974) is a Canadians, Canadian First Nations in Canada, First Nations artist whose multi-disciplinary practice includes such genres as performance art, "sacred clowning," songwriting, and video art. Reece is of Cree, Tsimshian, ...

, Aboriginal artists and curators, both with ties to Aboriginal youth communities, to curate an online exhibition. Beat Nation took off, and continues to grow, from an art exhibition and performance at SAW Gallery as part of British Columbia art scene in Ottawa,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

to performance art events with Beat Nation artists in

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway, and has served as th ...

and co-curator

’s performance as part of the 2010

Sydney Biennale The Biennale of Sydney is an international festival of contemporary art, held every two years in Sydney, Australia. It is a large and well-attended contemporary visual arts event in the country. Alongside the Venice and São Paulo biennales and ...

in Australia.

References

External links

* {{coord missing, British Columbia Art museums and galleries in British Columbia Museums in Vancouver Contemporary art galleries in Canada Art galleries established in 1984 1984 establishments in British Columbia